Hard-liners are cracking longer whip in Pakistan

Militants gain amid political turmoil

December 13, 2007|By Kim Barker, Tribune foreign correspondent

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The bomb was crude and small, placed outside the metal door at 4 a.m., not a time when anyone would be inside renting movies. But the explosion last week sent a powerful message to Aziz ul Haq, who runs the store. In a few days, he will close his doors, just like at least 40 other movie shops in the area over the past two months.

Several neighbors welcomed his decision. They said ul Haq spoiled the morals of young people with what they called pornographic movies -- actually PG fare from India and the U.S. that included "The Mask" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."

"If we don't close, someone will force us," said ul Haq, 21, who runs the shop with his brother but who says the movie-rental business is doomed. "It is an Islamic country."

Extremist attacks have always been a threat in and around Peshawar, the conservative capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, which borders Afghanistan and the remote, lawless tribal areas that are a haven to Islamic militants. But an unprecedented string of small bombings here has had big repercussions.

The attacks illustrate how the influence of Islamic radicals has been quietly creeping into more of Pakistan at a time when President Pervez Musharraf, his political opponents and the West have been distracted by a power struggle in the capital. And many worry that the militants have gained a momentum that cannot be stopped simply, even if Musharraf now turns his full attention back to the problem.

When Musharraf declared emergency rule in Pakistan Nov. 3, he said he wanted to control the rising threat from militants and a hostile judiciary. But while thousands of opposition activists were detained in the major cities, army and police officials say, the emergency has done little to improve or even change their ability to do their jobs.

"What we see at work in the border, particularly on this side of the border, are breeding-ground conditions that are ideal for militants and for people who have grievances," said a Western diplomat in Pakistan speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue. He added that changing those conditions will not be easy. "It is a huge task and very difficult."

In Peshawar, the police have solved few of the bombings, which have managed to almost shut down the struggling entertainment industry here. No one was arrested for one of the most serious attacks, by a suicide bomber who killed the city's police chief and 15 others last January, let alone the smaller bombs that explode regularly. No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

In Peshawar, as many as 3,000 police patrol the city of 4 million. That means a rate of one officer for every 1,333 people, compared with Chicago, with one officer for about every 210 people. But the Peshawar police are expected to solve normal crimes plus tackle a growing Islamic insurgency, often traced to Taliban-controlled towns or the nearby tribal areas, where tribal justice reigns and there is no law enforcement, let alone police. Coordination between police departments here is unlikely or impossible.

Militancy grows quickly

"The militancy factor in the last one year wasn't here before," said Muhammad Tahir, the senior superintendent of police in Peshawar. "Basically the erosion of state authority has taken place."

As Tahir explained that the militants were better equipped than police in parts of the province, his phone rang -- another bombing. This time, a bomb being carried by a woman had blown up near an office of Pakistan's most powerful spy agency. Government officials initially said the woman was the country's first female suicide bomber, but Tahir later said she was probably carrying the bomb when it was unexpectedly detonated by mobile phone, killing only her.

In the past few months, the Pakistani army has also faced the spread of militants to new areas, such as Swat, a one-time tourist mecca described as the Switzerland of Pakistan about 100 miles from Islamabad.

Militants linked to the Taliban and an anti-government cleric known as Mullah Fazlullah set up checkposts, reportedly beheaded men dubbed as government spies and drove out local officials. In villages in the Swat valley, militants burned records at police stations and hung signs outside proclaiming "Taliban station." They closed down girls' schools.

The Pakistani army launched an offensive against militants in Swat and on Saturday said that militants were almost finished. Maj. Gen. Nasser Janjua, commander of the operation, told journalists that the militants had controlled 25 percent of the valley and now control only 2 percent, although that could not be verified.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed four civilians and two police officers when he rammed his car into a police outpost in the area.